3 Reasons To Have Your Child Support Ordered Through The Court

If you are working with your child's other parent on a child support agreement, the two of you might be thinking about coming up with this agreement without going through the court system. Although it's always a good idea to try to talk to one another and get along, child support is one thing that you should always go through the court system for. These are a few reasons why.

1. You Might Qualify for More Than You Think

First of all, you shouldn't let your child's other parent determine how much you should receive in child support. There are certain formulas in place that are used to determine how much child support you should receive. You might find that you qualify for more money than you think if you allow the court system to handle it, which can provide you with more money to support your child.

2. You Need Protection in Case the Child Support isn't Paid

Although you might assume that your child's other parent will pay child support, you never know what could happen. Although it's certainly a good sign that he or she is willing to work with you about child support, there is always a chance that he or she will not pay. If you don't have an order in place, there will be little that you can do about non-paid child support, and you will have to go through a long process to go through the court to ask for payments after the fact. If you do go through the court system to get a child support order, however, there will be legal steps that you can take if you don't receive your payments as you should.

3. You May Need Proof of Income

Later on, you might need proof of income to rent a house or apartment or to do other things. If you will need to include your child support payments as a part of your income, you will probably need proof that this money is supposed to be paid to you each month. This can be tricky to do if you don't have court paperwork.

As you can see, you probably shouldn't go through the process of determining child support alone with your child's other parent. Instead, it's best to go through the court system when asking for child support. If you need help, you should work with a good family lawyer.